UK and Ukraine Agree to Collaborate On and Implement Digital IDs

(by Rhoda Wilson | The Exposé) – At the end of November Member of Parliament and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch met in London with Ukrainian officials to agree on a “ground-breaking digital trade deal” called the Digital Trade Agreement (“DTA”).  As an example of the “need” for the digital trade deal the UK government website specifies:

There is a critical need for people to be able to use digital solutions to prove they are who they say they are, despite the loss of critical documentation or displacement across borders. The agreement provides a framework for the UK and Ukraine to cooperate to promote compatibility between their respective digital identity systems to help address this.

UK and Ukraine agree ground-breaking digital trade deal, UK Department for International Trade, 30 November 2022

A summary of the DTA makes it clear that the Ukrainian government has been prioritising the most important things during a time of war, as anyone would when they are under attack: “Ukraine has strong digital aspirations, and they have identified greater digitalisation of the economy as one of their main areas of focus.”  And then, lest we forget, the UK government’s summary reminds us that Ukraine is in fact in the middle of a devastating war: “Putin’s large-scale aggression against the people of Ukraine is causing severe disruptions to their economy.”

The summary goes on to list the areas that are covered in the DTA:

UK-Ukraine DTA: agreement in principle explainer, Summary, Gov.UK, 30 November 2022

Ukraine’s First Deputy PM and Minister for Trade and Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said:

This digital trade agreement illustrates that Ukrainian IT companies operating in Ukraine are in demand around the world … Ukraine will have guaranteed access to [ ] financial services.

As a global leader in digital, the UK is ideally positioned to aid Ukraine’s post-conflict transition to a digital economy, with over two-thirds of our services exports to Ukraine already digitally delivered.

UK and Ukraine agree ground-breaking digital trade deal, UK Department for International Trade, 30 November 2022

The UK-Ukraine DTA also has a provision for collaborating on digital identity, where Ukraine supposedly has a lot to teach the UK about ID tracking tech and using digital ID to access services. Read Full Article >